How to Set Client Project Expectations

There has been a dynamic change in the business’s environment for many years and this change is going on with the latest technological trends and methodologies.

At the same time, businesses should be capable of adapting to changes with the pace of technological modifications.

When the change anticipated needs adjustments at the structural level than the project level, it would be essential for organizations to implement change management.Change Management for businesses and professionals Organizational Change Management is defined as the procedure focusing on the planned efforts at an organizational level to boost the effectiveness of professional employees and organizations through behavioral science knowledge.

The main objective of organizational change management is to decrease the negative fallout of any structural changes in a specific business.

It emphasizes both the macro and micro levels.

It has a top-down strategy to handling change whether workers require learning new skills, investing in new software or tools, or rearranging responsibilities and priorities.Understanding its terminology Change Management processes, models, and plans have developed with time to ease the impact of change on organizations.

The major criteria for successful project management are delivering projects within the deadline and with quality.

But achieving it is equally uncommon!Time and quality parameters are most sought after while executing projects.

And the logic lies right in the definition of a project: an endeavour which has a defined goal to be met within specified timelines.Now, driving a project to successful completion involves a lot of planning, structuring & anticipating tasks and events.Along with it you need to ensure you have the right resources, skills, tools and processes in place to execute the plan effectively.Primarily, you need to remember that it is a team effort and not a one man job.

Your team needs to be aligned with the project goal and any half-hearted measures by a single team member can derail your project.The entire project team, supporting processes and technology must all work in sync like a single well-oiled machine.

Any issues that may arise during the course of the project can be resolved successfully, if there is an agreed scope.Moreover, you wouldn’t end up in a situation at all if you have done the scope sign-off right!To that effect, your Scope document must have:Absolute clarity of all deliverables expected from the projectDelivery schedule of all milestonesProper milestone to deliverable mappingAssociated cost (agreed budget) for the entire project plus at a milestone levelAcceptance criteria of the deliverablesChange management process for managing scope changesResource management planOnce you have managed to get these done successfully you are sure to enjoy the following benefits:Better stakeholder expectation managementIncreased clarity around project goalsWell-aligned project teamNegligible scope change requestsFocused milestone planning & executionThis sets the tone for effective planning & timely delivery of your project.Get the Task Breakdown Structure right (WBS)Refer to the project milestone(s) schedule and start with your tasks management & milestone break down activity.This is where you:identify and create all tasks, subtasks, checklistscategorize your tasks with relevant custom task types and labelsdefine recurrence and set reminders against tasks as applicablemanage task interdependencies & task linkingprepare task estimation, start & end datesplan your resource allocationassess skill gaps, training needs & other technology requirementsThe sole objective of getting your task breakdown right is providing your team absolute transparency w.r.t the project plan and what are the desired outcomes.As a result, the teams have:awareness of the project goalsclarity around task deadlinesvisibility of the overall execution flowunderstanding of their roles and responsibilitiesopportunity for up skilling themselvesWhat makes this interesting is the fact that the WIIFM (what’s in it for me) is well answered; there is a clear path forward with no scope for uncertainty.

Thus knocking off assigned tasks becomes easier and fun!Set the project flowJust as you are ready to get into the execution mode, make sure your project flow is well-defined and contributes directly to the associated deliverables.Your project will include multiple moving parts at the same time.

The super popular Kubler-Ross model was used to explain the grieving process and later became adopted as a change model.

Kubler-Ross developed this model after observing the emotional transition of terminally ill patients, from shock, denial, anger, depression, acceptance and integration.

Step 5 is about enabling action by removing barriers and friction – anticipating and working on these obstacles will enable change success.Moreover, the language we use in organisational change management tends to be about managing negative incidents.

A key focus we have is about anticipating and managing employee and stakeholder resistance.

restructuring, outsourcing, and system replacement.

However, there is opportunity for us to adopt a more positive approach to inspire change, versus aiming to manage the negative aspects of change.When I was working a psychologist I remember meeting Martin Seligman when he was visiting Sydney, Australia.

In most of the cases, these errors are caused by developers or designers.

*It is estimated that software developers make 100-150 errors for every thousand lines of code.

Manual tracking of bugs can be time consuming and less efficient.

This is the primary focus of a bug tracking software.

By identifying the issues in advance, reporting them and fixing them, a bug tracking tool not only ensures seamless communication among team members, but also helps to roll out a product of high quality into the market within the stipulated time.

Better Return on Investments (ROI) One of the key features of a bug tracking tool is prioritizing the issues that are detected.